Badges

Link to me

Feedjit

Search WyBlog

The Party of "No"

Technorati and Me

Technorati is indexing me again! They had to make a code change to fix
the problem with my blog getting stuck in their queue. Kudos to Eric M.
and the guys at
GetSatisfaction.com
where they have "community powered support for Technorati".

Well, they're "sorta, kinda" indexing me anyway. It's on a 24 hour tape
delay or something. So I never get picked up by Memeorandum because they
pull from Technorati and Technorati has stuff I posted yesterday
listed as my latest blog entry. And that's old news to Memeorandum.

Wankers.

Fair Use Notice

"This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in
an effort to advance the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democracy, scientific, social issues, etc. It is believed
that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided
for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for
research and educational purposes."

As I
reported yesterday, NJ desperately needs rock salt. And we could have had
40,000 tons of it by now, if the Obama Administration is willing to buck the
maritime unions and allow for a waiver of the Jones Act.

With salt stockpiles dangerously low, the state transportation commissioner
said yesterday New Jersey is just one snowstorm away from possibly closing
major roadways — and he blames the federal government.

"A lot of the counties and municipalities are out of salt," Department of
Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson said yesterday. "If we have one more
storm, New Jersey is going to have to close its interstates."

Simpson said he has been trying to get the federal government to grant a
waiver allowing an empty ship already in Maine to bring 40,000 tons of road
salt to Port Newark.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security denied his request, he said, and
the salt remains in Maine.

Close the interstates Jim. Close 'em today.

Hey, it's what Dear Leader did with the National Parks. Shove the Jones Act
right back into his unionista-loving face.

The whole thing is absurd. There's a ship ready to get the salt here within
2 days. But it's homeported in the Marshall Islands and thus prohibited from
carrying cargo from one U.S. port to another.

We're supposed to wait three weeks while they find a suitable U.S.
registered ship.

On Thursday, Simpson said, he received a note amounting to a denial of the
waiver and was informed the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime
Administration was trying to locate a U.S. vessel that could bring the salt
to Port Newark.

They found barges, he said. One that carries 10,000 tons and one that carries
5,000 tons and would get the salt to New Jersey in about three weeks, leaving
more than half the load in Maine.

"Tell me how this is in the public interest — to deny New Jersey the
ability to protect its own people?" Simpson said. "It's appalling. It's
malfeasance."

Thomas Allegretti, chairman of the American Maritime Partnership, the voice
of the nation's domestic maritime industry, said a U.S. vessel will deliver
the salt to New Jersey.

"The maritime industry is working to ensure that the state has the resources
it needs to meet its seasonal demand," Allegretti said. "Despite short notice
by transportation officials, maritime operators are moving to accelerate a
request for additional salt and will deliver a new shipment to New Jersey
before it is needed again."

Translation? The check is in the mail.

So if Chris Christie wants to make a point, he'll close the interstates
until it gets here. Three weeks of turning trucks back at the Pennsylvania
border ought to get somebody's attention. Let's see the Teamsters union
fight the maritime unions. I'll bring the popcorn.